Alcatel-Lucent's 'carrier cloud' available early 2012

Alcatel-Lucent, the Paris-based telecommunications services provider, has announced its CloudBand system will be available to carriers globally in the first half of 2012.
CloudBand is a ‘carrier cloud’ system which allows telecommunication companies to deliver network services from the cloud by virtualising key elements of its network into software hosted in a cloud.

Rather than installing dedicated equipment for every communication service, such as SMS or video, service providers can access the virtualised software to address periods of high demand.

CloudBand is comprised of two parts, a management system between the network and the cloud; and CloudBand nodes which provide computing, storage, and networking hardware and software for cloud services.

CloudBand will also be offered as a service being run on Alcatel-Lucent’s own cloud.

Mark Hudson, cloud communications director at Alcatel-Lucent, says the service is the first of its kind in the industry and will help carriers improve network performance.

“By helping carriers integrate their cloud assets with their network, they can transform themselves internally to offer differentiated services with low latency, better bandwidth control and guaranteed QoS,” says Hudson.

He says they are in talks with New Zealand companies about the system but cannot name which companies at this time.

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